OUR DREAM VACATION THROUGH THE ‘S#*THOLE’ COUNTRIES
By Jason Jourdan
A few days ago, as my family and I passed through Immigration at Boston Logan, the agent who took my passport opened it at the back, and I watched as he thumbed the pages all the way to the front to find evidence of my travels. A whopping four stamps, Canada, the Bahamas, and now – two to be savored – South Africa and Botswana. There’s a previous passport that has a few more stamps in it, but – alas – an extensive international traveler I am not.
This trip to South Africa with my family was five years in the making; inspired by my brother and sister-in-law who have explored the continent extensively and have made deep connections with friends and place. Five years ago, they proposed we join them, to share in a part of the world they had fallen in love with. They talked of seeing “the Big Five”: elephants, rhinoceros, leopard, lion, and cape buffalo, and witnessing the cycles of life before our very eyes – the good and the macabre.
For all four of us, South Africa was literally and figuratively half a world away. And until now, Botswana was a country I had heard about but never imagined as a place I would one day visit. From the event of that original invite the calendar pages flipped over, and there always seemed to be some reason “this wasn’t the right time” to go away for an extended time. Work, school, life, death, this, that. February of last year brought the hard press; New Year’s 2018 was go-time, my brother and sister-in-law exclaimed.
As it turned out, it was the perfect window. At 14 and in 8th grade, our son and daughter were in the sweet-spot age for an extended trip to Africa. It was the off-but-not-altogether-off-season for the business my wife had created, and I had left one 16-year career and was looking for my next what-am-going-to-do-when-I-grow-up opportunity. This trip offered a chance to see a part of the world together, to be together as a family. It promised both new experiences and, at the same time, many unknowns.
Some of the unknowns were exciting; for instance, what would we see, learn and do? Some, honestly, provoked a little anxiety. The animals there will eat you; black mamba snakes, oh my; and what if we get rolled by a dung beetle? More seriously, in today’s noisy complex world of insurance, what if one of us got sick or injured? Where would we go for medical help, particularly when we were in the remote bush? How would we pay for any medical services we needed? Since my wife and I work independently, we buy our family’s medical coverage off the private individual market and international coverage isn’t on the list of benefits – but that’s a different anxiety provoking story for another day.
With a little research and asking around we found a terrific solution in Triptime Insurance. The cost to cover the four of us for three weeks in Africa was a no-brainer, the coverage easy to understand, and the on-line process was a snap. We departed for our adventure with the peace-of-mind that we had this medical coverage uncertainty taken care of. The being eaten part and the snakes were never the remotest of problems, either.
The landscapes (bush and city), the animals, mother nature at her most raw – are all beyond description. We did see the Big Five in their natural element, and declared muddy warthogs the mascots of our trip. The birding was extraordinary, and we met the most wonderful people. My wife and I easily agree that the trip was one of the greatest experiences of our lives, and one our kids will hold on to for the rest of theirs. We’re already talking about what countries we next want to see stamped in our passports.
* Editor’s Comment: Recent remarks by the U.S. President has inspired a look at what he called “shithole countries”. We will debunk this comment by recognizing the fact that Africa is the cradle of civilization and responsible for our planets most diverse and inspiring ecosystems.
